Chapter Text
“The main objective of this project is to step out of your comfort zone, to experience things you wouldn’t as your first choice. It's advice for life, as journalists you’ll be forced to be in places you wouldn’t want to be if you could, and in situations you might think is uncomfortable, so take this as an exercise for life, seek something you wouldn’t do and on this holiday, just do it” Professor Cochrane said enthusiastically and half the class moaned in despair. Laura imagined that this was given the fact that most of them had already made plans to go on a trip with their relatives or loved ones.
Laura left the building with a frown “search something you wouldn’t do normally and write about it” going through her mind over and over again. Well, let’s start with what she actually did normally. She would go to class, do her research, read 3 different newspapers to find inconsistencies in them, then she would search for the true facts on the internet, just for fun, and because she loved investigative journalism. She knows what you'll think about her, that she’s a nerd that only cares about her studies and she doesn’t have a social life, and yeah, you are probably right. It was Laura’s first year; she had acquaintances, but not friends. They all gave up on her; apparently that’s what happens when you keep turning down offers to go out on raves, or pubs, or bowling… or anything that involves getting out of her computer and comfy clothes. Well, Laura guessed it wouldn’t be that hard to get out of her comfort zone, she only needed to get out of her room. But to do what, exactly?
Destiny answered that question for her. As she walked by the college’s bulletin board, she noticed something weird. It was covered with Wheat-paste of some punk-rock band called “Stakes and Fangs”. In the wheat-paste there was a very cool illustration of three girls in a comic book style and written in magazine clipping letters “Stakes and Fangs pocket show. Are you really gonna miss it?” Laura reached for her phone and quickly typed the address shown in the poster. Well, I guess I have plans for Friday night, then…
xxxx
It was Friday and Laura’s excitement was tactile. She didn’t know she enjoyed the adventure so much, but there she was, walking towards the address. It end up the place hosting the pocket show was an abandoned hangar, according to Laura’s research the place was usually used to host raves and other underground activities that Laura was not familiar with. The place was crowded, and it could be seen from miles away that Laura did not belong in there. Everyone had ripped denim jackets with patches and spikes and Mohawks, and tattoos, and undercuts, and Laura was just...Laura. She knew it was a punk rock concert so she tried to tone down her usual look (that mainly consisted in turtlenecks and dress shirts) and she decided to wear a black t-shirt with a dark gray jacket, but still, she felt like she was standing up too much, even though no one was paying any attention to her. She put her hair up in a high ponytail, suddenly self conscious.
“Ok Laura, be cool, just go in there” She thought while dodging the smokers right outside the door to get inside. She was greeted by the bouncer, a very large fellow with lots of piercings and a head tattoo. Laura didn’t really like to judge people based on appearance, but that guy was VERY scary.
“ID” he said quickly and kind of harsh
“I… wait a second” she stuttered, feeling intimidated while searching her pockets.
Seeing her obvious discomfort and noticing her clothing he quickly added “I’m sorry, I was very rude.” he apologized much to Laura’s surprise and relief.
Laura lifted her head to look at him, still searching her pockets “It’s ok…”
“No it’s not, I was rude, I’m sorry. Ma’am would you please show me your identification… That was better, right?” he smiled, friendly. He honestly didn’t know what such a tiny fragile girl was doing there, but he sure as hell would not be the one to scare her away. Punks were already judged too much, and he wasn’t going to contribute to the stereotype.
Laura smiled at him, and he smiled back. “Way better actually. Oh I found it!” she said handing him the ID. He flashed a lantern towards Laura’s document, checking it quickly and gave it back to her.
“Enjoy the show miss Hollis” he smiled friendly at her.
“Thank you” she read the name on the tag in his chest “Mr. Jones” She smiled at him and got inside.
Well it was already an experience right? She misjudged the fellow because of his exterior appearance and first impression, but it turned out he was a fine gentleman, just a little rough on the edges, right?
Inside the hangar the stage was set, there was a lot of lights around it and they gave the stage an amazing visual.
Laura was impressed by the amount of people around. The place was crowded; everyone seemed very excited for the show. Laura decided she would stay on the back of the hangar, away from the stage. She was rather small, and if she stayed between all those people she wouldn’t be able to see anything anyway, so she just stayed put, next the bar, and she even bought herself a beer, she usually didn’t drink, but hey, out of the comfort zone means completely out of it, right?
“Laura?” she heard someone call her name.
She turned around to face whoever called her “Sam!” she greeted an old friend from high school. Well she was all different now, wasn’t she? She was a very tall kid for her age even back then, but now she seemed to be even bigger. Back then she had long blond hair and used a lot of loose and flowery sundresses, and now she was totally hardcore with her spiked bracelet, dark polished fingernails and a very cool undercut.
“What are you doing here? Do you dig punk now?”
“Oh no, is just a think I’m doing for college…”
“Yeah, right, because the Laura Hollis I know would be spending her Friday night buried in her room playing mmorpgs the whole night!”
“Well, that haven’t changed…” she smiled lightly.
“Well, I guess is your choice right? You know what makes you happy and you gotta go for it” she smiled broadly, and now Laura remembered why she had a huge crush on this particular friend. “So, a college thing, right? What is it?”
“Yeah, my teacher asked us to have a new life experience, do something we'd never done and probably wouldn’t do, write about it, if possible to get some interviews or whatever.”
“Oh! I can get you interviews” Sam said excited “I actually know the manager. Her mom is very close friends with my mom, we kind of know each other”
“Seriously? That would be awesome!” Laura was excited. Her plan was to watch the concert and maybe interview some of the punks, or maybe even that cool bouncer. She never expected to get in touch with the band.
“Sure! Just stick around until the end of the show and I’ll introduce you guys.” She quickly glanced towards the stage, she noticed the roadies already leaving the stage which should mean that the band would be up soon “Hey, I gotta go if I wanna be in the front, I like to feel Danny’s drums pounding in my skull, you know? Are you hanging back here?”
“Yes, I’m too short to be in the front with all those tall people”
“Got it. I’ll find you after the show, ok?”
“Ok! See you later”
Shortly after she lost sight of Sam in the middle of the crowd everything went black. Everyone started to cheer and chant “Fangs, fangs, fangs”. One faint light went back on and Laura could see the outlines of three people getting up the stage and taking their places next to their instruments. She heard the familiar count of drumsticks, and just like that the air was filled with sound. Laura didn’t expect to enjoy when she first got in, she was never the one to like punk-rock songs, she was honestly more of a Taylor Swift kind of girl, but so far she was enjoying the song very much.
When the singer’s voice joined the melody, Laura knew she was sold for good. The girl had a mighty low pitched voice, with a hint of husky that made everything even better. That voice sounded like hundreds of sleepless nights, cigarettes and beer, it sounded dangerous and exciting and mysterious. Suddenly everything Laura wanted was to know that girl, and gladly she had a good reason to! She didn’t even notice when it happened, and she only realized it when the first song was over, but when she came back to her senses her eyes were shut and she was swaying in the rhythm of the song. Everyone was cheering massively. The girl in front of the microphone smirked to the crowd.
“Oh my, looks like someone is happy to see me, am I right?” She asked in this husky and sexy purr and the crowd cheered louder. Laura was wondering if everyone was enticed by the girls as she was “you guys know we like to pay tribute to the good old bands, and I know you all enjoy this cover, so here it goes.”
The red haired guitar player started some chords, followed by the singer’s mighty voice.
Holy eyes,
I never knew I'd beg down at your feet.
Hold on tight
I never know I know much more than this.
Open sky
the wave of pain the scent of you is bliss.
Hungry eyes
they stare at me,
I know, I know,
She sang the first verse, there was something magical with the combination between the guitar chords and her raspy voice. That last word was followed by a whole second of silence, the crowd looked at the singer with anticipation and excitement. The brunette smirked and screamed:
DON’T GO
Laura was really loving that song, even though she hated songs that were screamed, but there was something about that song in particular… besides, it was only one line that was screamed so, everything good, right?
Soon it came to a point in the song where everything went dead silent again, the singer slides her fingers through her bass, soon followed by a stream of very sensual yeahs, and ohs, and Laura couldn’t keep her eyes away from the brunette with that powerful voice. Her bass and voice were soon followed by the other girl’s guitar, and then the drums came in, increasing the power of the song. And just like that it was over. Laura wanted to put the song on repeat but obviously she couldn’t.
The rest of the show played out, they must have played about 10 songs, and all of them were awesome but that second one was still ringing in Laura’s mind after it all ended.
The place started to empty out when Sam finally found her again.
“Hey! Sorry to keep you waiting, I was after Perry. She said you could come to talk to the band briefly because they need to put away the instruments and they are kind of tired.”
“yeah, sure! it won’t take long probably”
xxxx
“Hi, you must be Laura” a red haired girl greeted her “I’m Perry, nice to meet you. So I understand you want to talk to the band for a journalism class, is that correct?”
“Yes, just a small interview will suffice, I don’t mean to get in your way” Laura said politely
“Come with me, LaFontaine and Carmilla are putting the instruments away, but you can talk to Danny, the drummer”
They entered a small room where a very tall and very gorgeous red haired girl was sitting fidgeting with some cables nervously
“Hi, I’m Laura, nice to meet you Danny” she said raising a hand. To be honest Laura was a bit disappointed. She expected to talk to the brunette singer. But she was happy to get an interview anyway, so she smiled and turned on her voice recorder.
“I’m sorry, I’m kind of nervous, I was never interviewed before” she smiled a bit nervously.
“I noticed the lack of news about you guys, which doesn’t make any sense, this band is absolutely amazing! I think you guys should be harassed by the press”
“No, I mean, we’re kind of known here in Edmonton but we’re only getting attention now, so…”
“Well, tell me about the band then, how did you guys get together?” It was an obvious question, Laura would like to have a more conceptual and a different kind of interview, but the lack of material about the band was a serious problem for her essay, so she had to start with the basics.
“Last year of high school, we got together to play in a dumb school festival, but we worked so well that we decided to stick with the band after it was all over. It was LaFontaine’s idea; they just saw the festival poster and went after musicians in the school. The only ones willing to participate that were slightly good were Carmilla and I. That’s how Stakes and Fangs was born”
“What do you guys do when you’re not doing band stuff?” very eloquent Hollis, congratulations
“Well, LaFontaine, the guitar player, is the only one of us who is in college, they are a bio major. I work in my mom’s clothing store, and Carmilla, the singer and bass player is a music teacher.” Laura made a mental note to refer to LaFontaine with neutral pronouns because that’s what Danny seems to be doing
“Do you guys have any kind of label?”
“No, we’re a hundred percent independent. Our EP was really hard to get because founding such projects is very expensive, but we made it! Now we have tons of songs, enough for like two cds already, but we are having trouble with getting the attention of the local labels. We believe we need some publicity, you know? To get out there we need to be involved with something to show those guys who we are and that we’re serious. Most of them look down on us because we have two years of road together and we are very young. They think we’ll break up in the first crises. Little do they know” she smiled bitterly and Laura’s keen journalist nose smelled something.
“Well here’s your chance to make them know, tell us” she pushed gently
“Thing is, me and Carmilla do not get along very well. We endure each other for the sake of this band. We had some girlfriend drama in the past”
“Did you guys use to date?”
“Oh god no that’s disgusting! What happened actually-” she started
“Actually, that’s none of your business” a low annoyed voice said by the door and Laura froze. Of course after a whole hour listening to that amazing voice she would recognize it on the spot “and I’d appreciate if you don’t tell journalists about my personal affairs, Xena”
“Well, it’s my story too, I’m entitled to tell”
“Only if you ask me first”
“Now the two of you, play nice, we have company” Perry said in a bored tone, following Carmilla into the room. It seemed like this kind of dispute was pretty normal between them.
“Hello Carmilla, I’m Laura Hollis, I am…”
“A nosy journalist from Silas University trying to ruin a perfect day, yes, I was told about you”
“Don’t be fucking rude, dead girl!” Danny scolds her.
The third member of the band stopped next to Laura with an amused expression.
“So, Carmilla calls Danny Xena because she is really tall and she can kick ass at any time –I mean, I’ve seen her in enough bar fights before, I can tell - and Danny calls Carmilla dead girl because she’s pale and emotionless all the time. I’m telling you because it's important to have that on your article” they smiled and raised their hand “I’m LaFontaine by the way” Laura shook their hand smiling back. LaFontaine seemed very friendly, and Laura decided she liked her -“They” she mentally corrected herself.
“That annoying childish attitude of yours is exactly why we haven’t signed with any labels yet” Danny said angrily at Carmilla.
“Oh come on Danny, you know that’s neither true nor fair” LaFontaine said, tired.
“You’re right, that’s not your fault. But you should really work on your attitude”
“Ok, Xena, I will” then she turned to Laura, locking their eyes together “I am sorry for what I said before. I guess I’m just really tired.”
“We should do this other time then, Hollis” LaFontaine started and something glowed in their eyes “oh my god what are you doing this holiday?”
“Probably playing a lot of Diablo, why?”
“First, I love you because you play Diablo, we should totally play together some time, Second: you should totally come to our road trip! We’re traveling to Red Deer and Calgary to play a couple of shows, you should come! You can document the entire thing for you college project and we get to keep the footage in return to show the labels, it's perfect!” LaFontaine searched the other girl’s eyes for opinions.
“I don’t know, LaF” Danny started “are we ready to live a reality show?”
“If anything goes wrong we can just trash it! No one needs to see it besides Laura’s teacher anyways”
“Ok, then, I’m in” Danny said and both of them looked to Carmilla
The brunette shrugged “I don’t care, as long as it’s good for the band I’m in” she said, unimpressed. The three of them looked at Perry.
“I don’t really have a saying in this, it's your band”
“Oh come on Perry, you are our manager!”
“That’s just something you guys call me, it doesn’t really mean anything”
“It totally does. You are our heart, Perr” LaF said lovingly
“Well if you prize my opinion so much, I think it would work but there’s a flaw on your plan”
“What?”
“Does Laura want in? Because she didn’t even say anything and have it crossed your mind that she might feel uncomfortable traveling for two days with people she doesn’t even know?” Perry asked simply and all the eyes fell on her
“I… uh…” Laura considered very quickly her options. For once she really wanted to do that, and they all seemed nice and safe enough, so she said the world that was screaming in her mind since LaFontaine asked her: “yes!”
The project was about going deep in something it’s not from your world, right? Laura was diving head first. A three day road trip, two towns, two shows. She was to gather some footage, make some interviews with both the band and fans, just have some behind the scenes “Hey Laura, can you edit? I mean, It would be super cool to have a behind the scenes music video, I just love that stuff, it would be the perfect product to give the labels along with our EP” LaFontaine mentioned briefly during a conversation and Laura loved the idea. She was so excited about the whole road trip that it was scary even to her.